Newton nails down win over Grinnell; Area Prep Football Roundup

It was a bit of a wacky Week 7 for Iowa high school football as threat of severe weather had teams moving up start times. For the five Jasper County football teams, moving the start times up to two hours didn’t help much as lightning delays put most of the games back almost to the original start times on Friday night.

Newton, Class 2A top-ranked Prairie City Monroe and Lynnville-Sully notched district wins on Friday. Colfax-Mingo and Baxter dropped district contests.

Newton 50, Grinnell 39

Newton High’s Cardinals and the Grinnell Tigers went almost punch-for-punch in a scoring fest of a first half in their Class 3A District 7 contest. The Cardinals led 14-13 after one quarter and walked off the H.A. Lynn Stadium field up 35-27 at halftime.

Newton was able to stay on top and outscore visiting Grinnell 16-12 in the second half for the 50-39 win. The Cardinals moved to 2-1 in district play and 4-3 overall. The Tigers are 1-2 and 2-5.

“I’m proud of our kids. They found a way to win tonight,” Newton head coach Ed Ergenbright said. “Our defense got off the field and gave us the ball to make the plays. We kept shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties.”

The Cardinals amassed more than 500 yards of offense on the ground against Grinnell. But, they were penalized 26 times, overall for offense and defense, for more than 200 yards.

Scoring slowed down in the second half as the Cardinal added nine points in the third quarter to lead 44-33. The Tigers roared back with two TDs in the fourth quarter. The Cardinals had blocked two extra-point kick attempts — one in the first half and one after the Tigers’ first fourth-quarter score.

Grinnell decided to go for a 2-point conversion with 6:13 left in the game to pull within two points. The Cardinals denied the conversion pass to keep a 44-39 lead.

“The kids made a strong drive in the fourth quarter to secure the win for us,” Ergenbright said.

Newton went on a 10-play, 66-yard march capped by a 7-yard TD run by junior quarterback Kyle Long with 1:28 remaining in the game. Long scored back-to-back touchdowns in the first half on runs of four and five yards.

After moving up the start of the varsity game to 5:15 p.m., the teams left the field right after the National Anthem was played because of lighting. There was rain, thunder and lightning delaying the game until a 6:45 p.m. kickoff.

Newton had the opening kickoff and on the first offensive play of the game, junior Julian Hotchkin dashed 70 yards to put the Cardinals in front. Grinnell tied the game at 7-7 on a 13-yard TD run by Wyatt Hunter at the 7:27 mark.

Junior running back Logan Cummins ripped off a 77-yard run to set up Newton’s next score — a 4-yard run by Long. Sophomore Josh Meyer, who was 6-for-6 on the night, kicked the extra point.

Drew Coffman, the Tigers’ senior quarterback, led his team to a TD two minutes later, scoring from a yard out. Newton blocked the extra point kick to lead 14-13.

The Cardinals stayed in front as Long scored again to open the second quarter. Junior Dylan Farver had TD runs of 1-yard and 20-yards. Grinnell scored twice in the second period also on a run by Coffman and a 74-yard pass from Coffman to Tanner Strand.

Newton had a 35-27 lead with 34.5 seconds left in the first half. Coffman completed a long pass to put the Tigers on the Newton 33 plus a 15-yard penalty was assessed against Newton.

A touchdown pass was negated because of offensive pass interference on Grinnell. With 7.9 seconds on the clock, senior defensive end Mason Lee sacked Coffman. Coffman’s pass on the final play of the first half was incomplete.

“We just wanted to go out there and fight hard and not give up,” senior defensive back Reece Caves said. “We had a couple of bad games defensively and it was our moment to stand up and show who we are.”

Caves and the defense came right back out in the third quarter and forced Grinnell into a 3-and-out situation. Newton drove the ball but Long fumbled it at the Grinnell 1-yard line. The Cardinal defense kept the Tigers pinned at the one.

On the punt, the snap sailed out of the back of the Grinnell end zone for a safety. Newton was up 37-27. Grinnell had a long TD pass negated with a penalty with 4:50 left in the third quarter.

Newton went 49 yards on six plays to score on an 8-yard run by Farver. The Cardinals were up 44-27 heading into the final period.

Grinnell used a 20-yard pass from Coffman to Strand to score but the extra point kick was blocked. Newton had to punt the ball away after two penalties stalled its next drive. Coffman connected with Parker Johnson for a 47-yard pickup and Coffman scored on a run.

The Newton offense answered to claim the win. Newton plays at Pella, which lost 36-35 in overtime to Oskaloosa on Friday, next Friday in district action.

There was no freshman game, which was cancelled because of the weather forecast and moving up of the varsity game.

PCM 49, Des Moines Christian 12

MONROE — Class 2A No. 1 PCM withstood an early deficit and routed Des Moines Christian 49-12 at home on Friday night during 2A District 8 play.

Senior quarterback Reed Worth rushed for 188 yards and three touchdowns and threw for 90 yards and two more scores as the Mustangs improved to 7-0 on the season and 3-0 in district play.

On a wet and muddy night, the Mustangs out-gained the Lions 430-112. The game’s start time was moved up to 5 p.m. because of inclement weather in the forecast, but lightning and heavy rains delayed the start of the game to 6:45 p.m.

"This was an impressive performance. To shut down the No. 1 offense in the state like that shows how good our defense can be," junior lineman Jace Smith said. "This was a blast. It's fun to play in the mud. It was some old-school football out there."

Seth Juhl got loose for the Lions on their first possession of the game and put the visitors up 6-0 with a 68-yard TD run.

PCM held the Lions to only five rushing yards on 29 carries the rest of the way, and Des Moines Christian gained only 112 total yards in the loss. The Lions came into the week as Class 2A’s leader in points and yards.

"It's a big win for us," Worth said. "They came into the game with the No. 1 offense. Our defense was up to the challenge, but our offense also wanted to prove that we are pretty good, too."

Worth tied the game late in the first quarter with a 44-yard TD run and then his 50-yard TD pass to senior Preston Van Wyk made it 14-6 just 16 seconds into the second quarter.

With 2:23 to play in the second quarter, Worth’s second rushing TD of the night put PCM up 21-6.

The Mustangs were given a short field after a snap on a punt that was mishandled. Senior isaac Telfer recovered the fumble, and PCM scored two plays later on Worth’s 6-yard sprint to the end zone.

PCM’s defense forced a three and out on the Lions’ next possession.

The offense took over on its own 34, but marched 66 yards in four plays. Worth gained 33 yards on second and 11, and a facemask penalty tacked on 15 more yards.

Senior Wes Cummings capped the drive with a 7-yard TD run. Cummings finished with 106 yards on 20 carries. He scored a pair of TDs and now has 49 career rushing TDs, which ties him for the school record.

Cummings scored his second rushing touchdown of the night on the Mustangs’ first possession of the second half. This time, he went in from 20 yards out to make it 35-6.

Worth’s 41-yard TD run made it 42-6 late in the third quarter, and PCM capped its scoring when Worth hit Telfer on a 23-yard TD pass with 8 minutes to go in the game. Telfer finished with 32 yards on two catches.

Des Moines Christian returned the ensuing kickoff to the PCM 12-yard line. The Lions scored on one play to make it 49-12.

"We were out of our gaps early, but in the end we ended up being pretty dang dominant defensively," PCM coach Greg Bonnett said. "The offensive line stayed on blocks, opened up holes and did a great job on pass protection."

Defensively, the Mustangs were led by seniors Brycen Rogers and Jarron Trausch. Rogers finished with seven tackles and Trausch had six tackles and two tackles for loss.

PCM’s defense had 13 tackles for loss in the game. Senior Cole Dustin had four tackles and three tackles for loss.

Telfer had an interception and a fumble recovery and junior Cody Rink also had an interception.

Des Moines Christian’s junior quarterback Jackson Waring came into the game with more than 1,400 passing yards and more than 800 rushing yards. He finished with no pass completions and just eight rushing yards in the loss.

"We stuck to our gameplan. That centered around Jackson Waring," Bonnett said. "We wanted to have guys show up, make sure they were in the passing windows where he likes to throw the ball and flip some coverages up to not give him a clear read. We took care of business and executed."

Des Moines Christian dropped to 5-2 on the season and 2-1 in the district. The Lions play Chariton next week in what could be a playoff elimination game.

Lynnville-Sully 45, Grand View Christian 6

SAYDEL — Lynnville-Sully’s Hawks rolled up 458 yards rushing in their 45-6 win against hosting Grand View Christian Thunder on Friday. The Class A District 8 game was moved up to a 5:10 p.m. start but was delayed by lightning for almost an hour.

“We came out flat in the first half and made mistakes. We scored but we weren’t playing well,”Lynnville-Sully head coach Mike Parkinson said. “Then after Grand View Christian scored its touchdown to begin the third quarter, it woke us up. Most of our rushing yardage came in the third and fourth quarters.”

Evan Squires punched into the end zone twice in the first half from 1-yard out. Zane Fraker caught a two-point conversion pass from Bray Noun Harder. The Hawks led 14-0. Fraker made an interception on defense to stop the Thunder and set up Squires’ second TD.

Grand View Christian scored to begin the second half and cut Lynnville-Sully’s lead to 14-6.

Ethan Wyma and Tyson Vander Linder had back-to-back 17-yard TD runs in the third quarter. Squires and Nate Stock each tacked on a 2-point conversion run.

In the fourth quarter Squires had scoring runs of 26 and 50 yards. Vander Linden had a 2-point conversion run and Slater Young kicked an extra point.

Squires had 110 yards on 11 carries and three TDs for the Hawks. Vander Linden rushed for 157 yards on 13 carries and Wyma ended up with 113 yards on 13 carries.

Gage Schilling led the Hawk defense, which held the Thunder to 87 yards of total offense, with six tackles and two quarterback sacks. Squires and Fraker each had five tackles.

The Hawks stay undefeated in District 8 action, 3-0, and moved to 5-2 overall. The host North Mahaska next Friday in Sully.

AGWSR 69, Baxter 14

BAXTER — AGWSR won its fifth straight game and spoiled Baxter’s homecoming during a 69-14 win in Class 8-Man District 5 action.

The Bolts trailed 48-8 at halftime. They fell to 1-6 on the season and 1-4 in district play.

The Cougars are now 5-2 overall and 5-0 in district play.

Senior Peyton Johnston had 54 yards and a touchdown on nine carries for the Bolts. His 3-yard TD run put the Bolts on the board in the second quarter.

Baxter's other touchdown came on a 7-yard TD pass from senior Brendyn Padget to senior Dalton Heer.

The Bolts finished with 262 total yards in the loss. They turned it over three times.

Pella Christian 42, Colfax-Mingo 0

PELLA — The Tigerhawks’ playoff chances took a bit hit on Friday night after a 42-0 road loss to Pella Christian during a Class 1A District 7 contest.

The Eagles led 42-0 at halftime and the game was called shortly after because of inclement weather. Lightning also delayed the start the game by a few hours.

Colfax-Mingo dropped to 4-3 on the season and 1-2 in district play. Pella Christian improved to 5-2 overall and 3-0 in district play.